


A better person would

by clockwork_spider



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Guilt, Huddling For Warmth, Trauma, coming to an understanding, trapped in a storage shed, very reluctant comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-09-06 03:39:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8733334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clockwork_spider/pseuds/clockwork_spider
Summary: Dennis and Shun got stuck in a storage shed during a storm. Shun found that he’s not the only one who still had nightmares on the invasion of Heartland. Takes place a year after canon event, where hopefully they spent some time working together and Shun no longer wants to murder Dennis.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Not all that romantic, but if this is your ship there's room for interpretation.

“No… No… Please stop.. I didn’t… Stop this…”

Shun awoke to the sound of Dennis Macfield murmuring in his sleep from behind his back.

It was the afternoon when the storm started, and they’ve been stuck in the godforsaken storage shed since. It being too dangerous for them to navigate back to the cabin in the storm. The coldness of the autumn night demanded that they ignore their pride (and deep rooted personal grudge) in favour of conserving body heat.

Shun turned over to look at his companion, whose brows were tightly furrowed, whose face was pale, who shifted beside him in his sleep. Clearly, the Fusion user wasn’t having a great time.

There was some mild satisfaction in seeing the Fusion User suffer. After all, Shun had a good reason to hold a grudge.

“Hey,” Shun nudged his companion’s shoulder a few times, “wake up.”

Dennis woke up with a start.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it was my fault, I’m sorry, Kurosaki.”

Much to Shun’s confusion, Dennis’s murmuring turned into a torrent of distressed apology the moment his eyes focused on Shun.

“Whatever it was, snap out of it.” Shun snapped and shook the fusion user by the shoulders. Was he somehow related to the nightmare? He didn’t want to see Dennis Macfield have a breakdown. He had no words of comfort to give the former Academia agent. Whatever guilt the guy have, it wasn’t Shun’s to absolve.

Dennis blinked, breathing slowed as he returned to reality.

“Ah, sorry Kurosaki, did I wake you up?” The Fusion User said with a shaky smile.

“You did,” was Shun’s reply.

“Oh,” Dennis said, “my apologies.”

“Was it about Heartland?” the question slipped out, unbidden, after a period of silence. It was a gut feeling.

Dennis’s expression answered the question before he had to say anything.

“Are you regretting it?” Shun asked, and there was a hint of cruel satisfaction, crawling back into his heart. He wanted the ex-agent to regret it, to never forget.

“Yes,” Dennis answered, after studying him in that careful, guarded way.

“For how long?”

“Does it matter?” Dennis asked, shifting away slightly.

“No, answer the question.”

Dennis studied him, gaze defensive.

“I’ve always regretted it,” Dennis said, surrendering, his voice was cold.

“Hm,” Shun made a neutral sound of acknowledgement, and allowed the silence to stretch. Neither of them spoke.

The rain assaulted the roof above them like bullets, its sound deafening.

“What would you have done differently, then?” Shun asked, a strange whim overtaking him.

Dennis blinked, and seemed to study him again. The room felt colder, with the lack of body heat beside him.

“I think we should go back to sleep,” Dennis offered, finally.

“I doubt you could,” Shun eyed Dennis, who still looked pale and shaken, “and you owe me answers.”

“I suppose I do,” Dennis gave an awkward chuckle, scratching the back of his neck.

Shun raised an eyebrow.

“I could have warned them. I could have lied to Academia, delayed the invasion."

“And we’d have listened to you like how Synchro listened to us.”

Shun would like to believe that, with warning, Heartland would have done better. But Shun remembered Heartland during peacetime. A lone street performer proclaiming warnings of doom would have been treated as a madman.

“I could have tried.”

“And when you run out of lies to tell?” Shun asked, "When Leo decided that you were incompetent at your duty?"

“They would have pulled me back, I suppose.”

“And they would have pulled Ruri from your memories,” Shun finished, frustration rose from his guts. This didn’t make things better. Nor did it make Dennis less responsible for all that have happened.

“What would have happened to you, then?” Shun told himself that he didn’t care to hear the reasoning of a guilt ridden liar, but found himself asking the question anyway.

“Depending on how useful they considered me,” Dennis shrugged, “I could have been carded. Or I could have…” he paused, cutting himself off, “there could have been other disciplinary actions.”

“Such as?” Shun watched as Dennis attempt to draw further into himself, and pressed on.

“It shouldn’t matter,” Dennis swallowed, and turned his gaze away.

“But it did,” Shun pressed.

“I could have spent a few weeks down in the dungeons,” Dennis resigned, breathing the words out in a light torrent, with every bit of nonchalant he could manage, "or they could have made me duel every other student until I couldn’t see straight, just to make an example.”

“You’re right. You should have warned us anyway,” Shun heard himself say. He felt the need to rip everything apart. He didn’t know whether he was angry at Dennis, or Academia, it didn’t seem to matter. His own words tasted bitter in his mouth and he felt his control slipping.

“All the people in Heartland, they all had their own lives and families. Academia could have roasted you alive, and it’d be nothing compared to the thousands of lives ruined from the war. Do you know what it’s like to lose your family? Have you ever lost a sister? A mother? Or a friend?”

“I never-“ Dennis’s face cycled through confusion, indignation and shame. “No. I haven’t. I’ve never… Nevermind.”

“You didn’t have any,” Shun said.

“They called us children of Academia.”

“Hm,” Shun acknowledged, his stomach churned, “You didn’t like it there.”

“I did, though. We all did, at some point.”

“Were they your family?”

“No...” Dennis answered, there was hesitation as his words trailed off. “No,” he repeated, more quietly, “I wouldn’t say they were.”

Another thunder clapped during the ensuing silence. The shed felt colder than it did moments ago.

“I know I’m not a victim,” Dennis continued, after a while, “I had a choice. I made the wrong one.”

“You made bad decisions,” Shun found himself saying, "but I wouldn’t call it a choice.”

Dennis stared at him, caught off-guard.

The thunder marked the sound of something breaking.

“While I was performing on the streets of Heartland, there was this child,”  Dennis said, after a while, "He had this really silly hat, and a wide grin. I performed a magic trick for him, and it made him really happy.”

"He didn’t have any money on him, so he shared his candy with me. It was the first time I felt pride as an entertainer. I never knew that I could make someone that happy.”

“I found him as a card later, lying on the concrete ground during the invasion.”

“I saw him with his parents later, when we were released from the cards.”

“I could have warned him, though. I could have told just him to hide, you know. He might have believed me…”

“I didn’t, though," he turned to Shun, pale face lit up by the flash of lightning, "Why didn’t I do that?"

“It would have been _so simple._ ”

“I wouldn’t know,” Shun answered. He had no answer to give, “I’m not you.”

“You’d have warned him,” Dennis laughed, sounding more hollow than bitter, "you’d have warned them all even if it doomed you.”

Shun thought of Ruri, and Yuto. What would he have done, if he had grew up a child of Academia, if he didn’t have people to love, to protect?

“I wouldn’t have,” it took Shun some time to admit. Yuto would have, and so would Ruri, they were better people than him. “You should have done it anyway.”

Dennis stared at him for a very long time before he chuckled softly, shoulders wracking from laughter, laughing until he was out of breath.

The shed was cold.

Shun closed the distance between them, and wrapped his arms around Dennis's shaking shoulders. He felt Dennis froze, and said “It’s warmer this way.”

He felt Dennis’s warmth as the laugh turned into dry sobs, as Dennis’s hands clutched onto Shun’s coat for his dear life, and Shun instinctively held on a little tighter. He felt the weight of Dennis's head on his shoulder as the shaking subsided.

The rain continued to patter, joined by the sound of their synced breathing.

When they awoke the following morning, storm cleared and ready to head back, neither of them mentioned it.


End file.
